1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a novel bar-code symbol driven Internet scanning terminal, and method of surfing the Internet by scanning bar code symbols encoded with the Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) indicating the location of information resources on the Internet to be explored or accessed, and novel means and ways of tracking objects bearing such URL-encoded bar code symbols.
2. Background of the Invention
Presently, several techniques have been developed for connecting to (i.e., "surfing" among) Internet-based information resources on the World Wide Web (WWW) using a conventional graphical user interface (GUI) based Internet browser programs, such as the Navigator.RTM. from Netscape Communications, Inc. or the Internet Explorer.RTM. from Microsoft, Inc. The availability of any particular Web-site surfing technique depends on where the Internet user finds him or her self in the Internet browser program at any particular instant of time.
For example, if one is currently at a Web-site (i.e., in a particular HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document), at which there is a highlighted or embedded "link" specifying the Internet address of another Web-site (i.e., another HTML document), then the user can "surf to" this other Web-site by simply "clicking on" or selecting the highlighted URL with his or her pointing device (i.e., "mouse") in a conventional manner. The ability to connect to other Web-sites by simply pointing and clicking on a highlighted URLs embedded in an HTML document has contributed enormously to the growth and popularity of the Internet in the last few years.
If the user desires to connect to a Web-site that is not referenced in a HTML document viewed through a browser program, then the user oftentimes finds it necessary to manually enter the URL of the Web-site (e.g., "http://www.metrologic.com") into the browser program. This requires manually pressing a sequence of keys on a keyboard or remote control device, corresponding to the characters of the URL being selected. In addition to being time consuming, this Web-site surfing technique is prone to errors, causing the browser program to connect to the wrong Web-site or return a message stating that the Domain Name of the Web-site sought after cannot be found. From practical point of view, this is quite frustrating to the Internet user.
More recently, with the growth and ever increasing complexity of the WWW, it is becoming popular to use printed publications (e.g., magazines, catalogues, directories, etc.) which list Web-site, corresponding URLs and content descriptions, as navigational aids, much in same way that the TV GUIDE.RTM. magazine is used to help viewers select programs during television viewing. Again, however, each time a listed Web-site is to be viewed, the user is forced to manually enter into the Internet browser program, the lengthy character string associated with the URL of the Web-site being selected. Only thereafter, does the browser program automatically connect the user's client system (i.e., Internet Terminal) to the Internet Server computer supporting the selected Web-site.
While the development of HTML and GUI-based Web browser programs have made accessing Web-sites quite simple, the above shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art Internet technology clearly indicate a great need in the art for an improved system and method of surfing to Web-sites on the Internet.